Reynolds: We remain committed to safety during pandemic

We are off to a wonderful start to the 2021-22 school year at Peoria Unified School District and our teachers, staff and students have hit the ground running, working hard on teaching and learning.

Obviously, the pandemic is very much on our minds as we begin the school year. I want our entire community to know that we remain committed to the safety and well-being of our students and staff as we work hard to continue to offer an engaging and rigorous in-person learning environment.

While we had hoped to begin the 2021-22 school year as normal as possible, I want to make sure our community is aware of how COVID-19 is impacting our schools. Currently the wearing of face coverings in our schools is optional for both students and staff. As our families and employees consider that option, we want to make sure to provide the health data needed to make that decision.

Since the first day of school on Wednesday, Aug. 4, we have received 120 positive cases of COVID-19 with on-campus exposure across all school/district sites. Out of those 120 positive cases, we have identified 649 close contacts, or individuals who were within six feet of a person who tested positive during their infectious period, for 15 minutes or more.

As we have communicated in previous parent updates, public health agencies such as the CDC, ADHS and MCDPH strongly recommend that all individuals wear a mask indoors.

It is our goal to have children attend school in-person and remain healthy. Please keep your child at home if he/she is sick and follow all quarantine requirements if your child is identified as a close contact. We continue to operate our air purifiers in each classroom space, thoroughly clean our facilities and encourage frequent hand-washing by all students and staff. We also continue to space students out in rooms when feasible.

We are monitoring our community and school spread data daily and will adapt our current protocols if necessary. Every one of us at Peoria Unified is working hard to keep our students physically, mentally and emotionally safe during this pandemic and we are working every day to keep teaching and learning as the center of our focus.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with our parents and students to decrease the spread of COVID-19 while keeping our focus on the academic success of every student.

Editor’s note: Jason Reynolds is the Peoria Unified School District superintendent.